Roses at My Feet
by BlueEyedxAngel
Summary: Everything changes for the Fabray family when Rachel gets herself more involved in her Broadway career. She needs to realize that this doesn't give her reason to blame her wife Quinn, but the stress begins to get to her which gets her to begin to run away from her family. Neither Rachel or Quinn are sure of what will happen in the future.


**Author's notes:**

The prologue is really just setting the stage, so even though Quinn isn't really in it worry not, this is _definitely _all about Faberry and the family. I mostly felt like I needed to find a reasonable way to open it up, if that makes sense.

Title is from the song 'When I'm Gone' by Eminem, along with the fanfic being totally based off of it: watch?v=SLbuUQ-RNGg

(there should be a link with that video. That'll be the song I include on the eventual mix I make for the story).

I'll probably end up putting together a soundtrack for this at the end, but expect some bonus songs along the way, which will be either those used/referenced in the story or more often the song I most listened to when writing a specific chapter. Not at all necessary to listen if you don't care, but music always plays a part of my writing experience so I thought I'd share.

I'm done babbling at you now, enjoy the story :)

* * *

"I remember the first time I came here. It's been a rough six years, and I'm just happy to not be that person anymore – and so is my wife, thank you for letting me do this. That's all I have to share right now."

The old man, probably in his fifties, stood at the podium, hunched over it, telling his story to all in the room with a bit of a hardened heart. The crowd of people sitting in the chairs in front of him listened closely, some of them biting down on the cigarette buds, still sharing the habit that they had been unable to kick to everyone else in the room. She sat in the middle of the room listening closely, hunched in her chair. Anyone who knew of her would easily not be able to recognize her any longer. She now dressed in an old pair of ripped jeans, a red t-shirt, an old pair of ripped black Chucks, a black hoodie that covered her face, and her long brown hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail. She looked up and saw her sponsor; dealer and old friend Noah Puckerman stand up and walk across the room in order to get both himself and her a cup of coffee. Puck had worried about Rachel, he'd been worrying about her for nearly as long as he could remember, he'd worried about Rachel's life, about her marriage to Quinn, the second it had started to get abusive he'd been scared about what both Rachel and Quinn would do to themselves as it grew worse day by day. Even more than that he worried for Hailie and Whitney, both of Rachel and Quinn's children, he had worried that their parents' fighting would do nothing but cause continued problems for the girls. Rachel had learned her lesson through this, and that was all the girls needed, to have both of their mothers back. The old man sat down, and another man, one with dark hair and dressed nightly stood and applauded the man, walking up the podium himself. The man picked up the pair of glasses that lie on the podium and put them on his face.

"Is there, uh, anyone else who'd like the share with us tonight?" The man asked.

Rachel could feel her heart beating, she had so much that she did want to say, that she'd wanted to say for a long time. Her entire story suddenly flashed through her mind, imagining all the mistakes she'd made in the lives of both Hailie and Whitney, how badly she had hurt Quinn in absolutely everything she had done. She saw Hailie's face as she closed her eyes, feeling a tear fall down her own cheek. "Hailie," she whispered softly. Unable to even be in control of what she was doing, she raised her hand. "Um, yes," she said. The man in front nodded after spending a few minutes staring into the eyes of the former broadway star, and left the podium to her. Rachel slowly walked to the front of the room, standing at the podium, seeing every eye in the room on her. She lifted up the microphone and took a deep breath.

"My name is Rachel Berry…"

She looked upon the crowd, feeling the familiar sensation of standing in front of a crowd, almost as if she was performing again. Even though she knew this wasn't really a performance she still felt the rush almost as if it were just what she was doing again. Closing her eyes, she remembered all that had happened.

* * *

**Additional Author's notes:**

Bonus song: Memories by Within Temptation watch?v=GM6PYawZ8nk

This has always been a Rachel song to me, ever since season 3. In Rachel fic and Rachel shipping I find it very sad. I think it still fits the moment here, even when the feelings become very different as Faberry and the past comes up ;)

Next chapter we get into Rachel's past and the story properly, more soon :)


End file.
